A day ward in St Michael's Hospital in Dun Laoghaire has been turned into an "operations room" for the nurses' strike committee to co-ordinate emergency cover.
The beds have been pushed to one side of the ward, and the three-day rota which the hospital's 130 striking nurses will work without pay hangs on a wall.
The 10-member strike committee will liaise with the wards and hospital consultants on staff levels. As in all hospitals, should an emergency arise, nurses will be taken off the picket line to treat patients. Nurses on day shifts will work four hours on the picket lines and four hours on the wards. The pickets will not be continued after dark.
The hospital's 25 consultants and 20 hospital doctors will take over many duties normally carried out by nurses.
The posters which nurses will hold high on today's picket lines read: "Bertie, we don't expect a blank cheque"; "Bertie, you have the shirt off our backs"; and "Jail the gangsters, pay the nurses".
The acute voluntary teaching hospital will operate during the strike with half its normal quota of nurses. About 20 of its 86 beds have already been emptied. The hospital's elective admissions have been cancelled, but its accident and emergency department and fracture clinic will remain open throughout the strike.
A respiratory nurse specialist and strike committee member, Ms Mary Frances O'Driscoll, said nurses were upset that industrial action was needed, but were committed to their stance because they have been underpaid for years.
"We're not going to be put down. We've been put down long enough," said Ms O'Driscoll, who has three extra specialisations and earns £22,000 before tax.
"Bertie Ahern sees himself as a great negotiator. He is negotiating with people in the North and isn't it a pity that he can't sit down and negotiate with the nurses?"
Theatre sister Ms Mary Leahy, the Irish Nurses' Organisation representative in the hospital, said striking staff were united and focused, but sad for their patients.
Ms Leahy, who earns £25,000 before tax, said nurses wanted meaningful negotiations with the Government. "There has to be movement. If we are willing to move, the Government must be willing to move too," she said.
Mr Kevin O'Connor, the hospital manager, said he was "apprehensive" about the strike. "It's difficult to anticipate all the issues that will arise, but we have agreed to keep in touch with the strike committee so when problems do arise we can sort them out," he said.
He was satisfied that the hospital would offer a reasonable level of care during the strike. Despite the announcement that its out-patients clinic was cancelled last Monday, more than 70 per cent of patients who had bookings turned up. Mr O'Connor said they were treated, but people showing up for out-patient clinics today will not be seen.